Tommy Fury is now been confirmed to have been replaced by Hasim Rahman Jr as Jake Paul's opponent for the fight scheduled for August 6 at Madison Square Garden. The world of boxing has been reacting to the news in the past 24 hours, with former world champion Paulie Malignaggi jokingly holding a "moment of silence".
Fury was unable to travel to the US for last week's press conference due to visa issues and Paul issued an ultimatum to the British fighter. He stated that if he could not find a solution by the morning of Wednesday, June 6 then a replacement would be sought for the 22-year-old.
This deal was not fulfilled and he has now been replaced by Rahman Jr for the fight, with the 31-year-old American posing the most serious test to Paul so far. This is a sentiment echoed by former two-weight champion Malignaggi, who was speaking on his podcast - Rahman Jr has a record of 12-1-0
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"Interesting choice," Malignaggi said of Rahman Jr's call-up for the fight. "This is a real boxer, I did not think Tommy Fury was a real boxer, I mean Rahman Jr's been boxing. I don't know how active he's been, but none the less, this is a guy who intended to make a career for himself in boxing even if it hasn't panned out for him yet. This is not Tommy Fury, who essentially was the same as Jake Paul despite what the British media tabloids tried to sell us on.
"Tommy Fury was supposed to be the first real boxer Jake was fighting, that was actually a false narrative. Tommy Fury was not the first real boxer, he was the exact same thing Jake Paul was; a reality TV guy who was boxing.
"Rahman Jr, regardless of anything, still is a guy who was intending to box at one time in his career and try and make a career out of it. It's certainly very interesting."
